Subject to Change

I caught my two-year old telling a pumpkin to “go to daddy.” When I asked him what he was doing he pointed to the largest of the three pumpkins and said, “that’s the daddy.”

The next largest pumpkin was “mommy” and the pie pumpkin was “Cole.” In our house, daddy is not significantly larger than mommy. In fact, she’s taller by an inch (according to her). So, where did my son get this stereotype?

I’ve realized that if it came out of the mouth of a toddler it’s an honest observation. At his age children say what they think, without bias or fear of retribution. There’s no more honest assessment of the world around us, than what’s reported by a young child, is there?

Now, I’m eagerly waiting for my child to report that absentee fathers are a blight on urban society. You’ll read it here first!

You can get an excited toddler to say anything!

“Cole, pick up your chainsaw and come in the house!!!”

My neighbors will be moving tomorrow, I imagine.

These videos of my two year-old playing in the park are just too funny. The first is the set-up. Cole finds a spinning tire and wants to ride.

Then, his dad encourages him to run to mommy. The expression on his face is just priceless.

I just know someone is going to be horrified by that. It’s not child abuse if they’re laughing!

My boy made me proud yesterday. We took him to see his first big-screen movie and he sat through it without incident!

We decided on Bedtime Stories, at a budget theater, of course. Cole has a fondness for popcorn, so we bought a large lemonade and a bucket of popcorn to increase the odds of keeping the two year-old under control. He must have eaten half the popcorn by himself and drank nearly all of the lemonade! There wasn’t a moment during the film when he didn’t have one or both on his lap.

I’m sure he enjoyed the movie, especially the motorcycle chase at the end. We had to try and keep him seated while he shouted, “Boom! Crash!” over and over. Aside from that there were only a few times that we had to explain to him that he needed to watch quietly.

Based on this trial run, I’d bet the odds are 50:50 that we could make it through another movie with him soon. It’s a good thing I still enjoy kids’ movies!

Kelly and I were watching a WWII movie the other night, while trying to keep Cole busy playing elsewhere. He was suitably distracted, or so we thought. When the movie changed scenes to show the German army on the move, Cole waved his hands and shouted, “yay!”

“Are you cheering the Germans?” I asked.

“Germans!!!” he cheered.

“Can you say schadenfreude?”

“Scha-de-freu.”

There’s something really creepy about a two year-old talking back to you in German.

Something interesting happened in the past week. There’s a representative at Blue Cross who finally. took an active interest in our case. We had a conference call with her and explained that we’d like our situation to be investigated to see if there’s a pattern with the hospital we’re dealing with. We also wanted to clarify the timeline, so that we’re all on the same page.

Last week I contacted this representative to check up on things and she told me that her position was one of 1,500 that had been downsized. I couldn’t help but laugh, and then I emailed her back to tell her I’d provide a reference if she needed one. She promised to continue on our case as long as she could. “You may as well go out with a bang,” was my response.

When my son was born I took three days of work to be at the hospital. I used more personal time after the birth to be home with him in his first few weeks.

I worked through the presidential inauguration, but I had the radio playing at a reasonable volume.

We received a phone call today which explained the extra payment by our insurance provider. The hospital resubmitted the claim, as they explained in their apology letter, and the insurance company processed it. I’m not aware of everything that went on in between, but somehow the insurance company realized too late that this was a duplicate claim. They’ve got a promise from the hospital to refund the payment. Of course, I wish them the best of luck with that. I’m starting to wonder if I may find myself on the witness stand before we’re through with this!

In case I haven’t been perfectly clear on this I’m very pleased with the way my insurance provider has handled this and other issues.  When I recently switched jobs I was happy to see that we had the same provider.

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any more mixed up a new letter arrived in the mail to prove us wrong!

The “apology” letter from Wheaton Franciscan was copied to Blue Cross. The first thing I noted about the cc line was that it didn’t include an address so I could follow up with Blue Cross if I chose to do so. As luck would have it, Blue Cross replied on their own!

This letter left us standing there with jaws dropped. Blue Cross admitted to having troubles with a “legacy system” and claimed that they had paid inaccurately. They said the problem is fixed and will no longer be an issue. As far as corporate apologies go, this one is pretty standard. They also said that an additional $7150 was paid toward our claim.

That extra payment is what caused us to stand there in disbelief. According to the initial “appeal,” only $1850 was still owed for services. Blue Cross made a payment on 8/30/07 after we received the “appeal,” wrote a blog, called Wheaton Franciscan, and called Blue Cross (more or less in that order). After that payment our co-pay of $250 was the only remaining balance. We have a number of itemized statements to show that the rest of the birth bill had been paid. There was also the brief period where Wheaton Franciscan double billed us for a co-pay on a second procedure. I mention it because it has been difficult to separate the two incidents ever since.

Curiosity finally got the better of me and I’ve added up all the items on one of the itemized statements. I thought maybe the totals didn’t add up. There could be $7150 in there unaccounted for, I guessed. There wasn’t. According to Wheaton Franciscan’s own documentation only the $1850 was in question. I have no idea what they may have said to Blue Cross to convince them that the outstanding balance was higher.

I want to write a letter to Blue Cross, warning them that they’ve overpaid. We always had good luck dealing with them on this and other issues. I’d hate to see them dragged into what is clearly Wheaton Franciscan’s issue to deal with. I’d also hate to see Wheaton actually rewarded for their mistakes.

Do you think I ought to write the letter, or is it better to just sit on this knowing that I have a letter from both parties telling me I’m off the hook?

Update: Just reread the letter. The payment will be sent on the 29th. So, I still have a chance to intercept it.